December Daily: Books

[resonant]

Another day of making up my own question: A few excellent books I read this year.

• Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End. A moving and fascinating study of old age, part journalism and part essay. The spouse lost his mother this year, and his father is in an assisted-living apartment now instead of in his own house in California, so this felt very relevant -- but of course it's always relevant. I'd recommend it to everyone.
  
  
• Daryl Gregory, Raising Stony Mayhall. Don't expect me to recommend a zombie book ever again, because generally it's a field in which I have zero interest. But one way to get my attention is to write the book from the POV of the zombie.
  
  
• Elisabeth Tova Bailey, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. Get this one on paper rather than in an e-book so you can enjoy the drawings. The author was bedridden with a mysterious illness, and someone brought her a snail. She didn't have the energy to do anything else, so she watched the snail. It's a great book.
  
  
• Gail Carson Levine, Ella Enchanted. Everyone already knows what this one is about, but it was a good sharp look at a fairy tale trope.
  
  Go here to add your own question.
  
  
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  3. mific: Do you enjoy Christmas more, or less, now the kidlet's older?
  4. armadillo1976: Dec 4. From the perspective of a parent of a big(ish) kid, what do you remember most/best from the time your kid was 1-2?
  (Asking as a mom of a 1.5 year old, terrified that she is going to forget all the love and beauty and mess of these times...)
  5. grammarwoman: what's a go-to comfort meal for you?
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  8. monanotlisa: What's the hardest thing to write for you, and how do you get around it and yet write it?
  9. china_shop: Thoughts about writing original fic vs writing fanfic, whether it's different processes, different feelings (or the same process, and the same feelings), or whatever.
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  11. reginagiraffe: what was the best birthday present you ever got? (You can supply your own definition of "best".)
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  13. mific: If you had to give up one of your 5 senses (you know, to save Atlantis or Benton Fraser's life, or suchlike), which would it be and why?
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  16. zulu: best vacation/break you ever had?
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  18. kass: What do you enjoy most about parenting a kidlet of this age?
  19. kass: what fannish character is bringing you the most joy right now?
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  27. muccamukk: Moments in canon that still emotionally resonate with you, many years later.
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Comments

[cesperanza]

I read being mortal too - it was a book that got sort of passed around my circle where we're all of us dealing with aging/dying parents. I enjoyed it, I thought it was super worthwhile!

It's nice to see you posting! I miss your voice! I thought of you too because they're opening a Trader Joe's near me, which I associate to this day with you!

[resonant]

I'm planning a Trader Joe's pilgrimage tomorrow, as a matter of fact! (This is assuming that Wisconsin didn't get any worse snow than Iowa did today.)

I miss you, too. The move knocked me out of a number of things that were fun and good for me -- I put both fandom and yoga in that category! I'm trying to get my sleep fixed in the hopes that that will be the first step towards a life that's not entirely dominated by work.